The Giants, as I predicted when the Patriots were losing the game earlier tonight, have fallen apart in the fourth quarter. The Pats started putting the pressure on a bumbling Eli Manning and took control.

12.24.2007

... And the service concluded with two of our musicians doing Manheim Steamroller's Silent Night. Amazing. Just minutes before, I had been preparing myself for another lame, churched-down version of the song and thinking to myself about how much I missed hearing the Steamroller version. In my opinion, that version of that song has to be the best, most beautiful Christmas song of all-time. Plus, it brings back such fond memories for me of growing up, surrounded by Kansas City Christmases ... So when it came out tonight, the chills were traveling up and down my spine from the first note played and right up through the last bar ...

... The baby was getting attention tonight, too. Before the service, one of our pastors said to Kates, "A few months earlier and you could have been Mary this year ..." ... Then, during the service, as Kates got up to direct the children's choir, I heard a woman behind me whisper to her pew mate, "Oh! She's pregnant ..." ... And on our way out, our other pastor greeted Kates and I and said, "Oh you guys must be so excited! You are living the Christmas story this year!"

... After we got home, I made salmon for our Christmas dinner ... And now we're enjoying the 24 hours of "A Christmas Story" -- one of my favorite movies of all-time, no matter the season -- on TBS ...

I'm finding it hard to fathom that another year is about to pass. Perhaps it's because 2007 has been such a memorable one, full of life experiences that extended from euphoric, glorious and hilarious to plain scary and rotten ...

So let's do it. Presenting some of my favorite posts, the best of 2007 ...

But Brett's name wasn't the only "B" word making headlines on this blog in 2007. Yep, Kates and I can't look back on the year without discussing the impending birth of our first child. We have been delighted and awed and humbled by every aspect of this new phase in our lives, even amid the hormones. Though we also recognize we've still got a lot to learn.

12.22.2007

Kates and I cleaned two movies from the DVR tonight -- two movies we've long wanted to see. (Sorry, we just don;t get out to the theaters much anymore. Horrendous prices. Inconsiderate teenagers. What's the point?)

Next up, Bewitched ... Bedazzling. We were well aware going in that the critics hated this one. But there was something about it that drew us in and it delivered. A cool and different take on the storied TV show. ... Nicole Kidman was enchanting, and Will Ferrell, for once, showed some range (I'll echo here what I said about Ben Stiller movies. The same goes for Will Ferrell. Loved him on SNL. Hated Old School.) And Kristin Chenoweth shows up well again as the cute little neighbor next door, leading a strong cast of secondary characters that includes Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine and Heather Burns ... Recommended if you're a sucker like us for whimsical colors and storylines.

12.19.2007

When you consider all the history and the ornate-ness of the building, I can't help but marvel at it every time I've passed it. It's easily one of my favorite buildings in D.C. ... Said one observer today: It's a poignant thing because sometimes it takes events like these to appreciate these buildings.

12.15.2007

[The scene: We’ve just finished eating supper. I’ve gently encouraged Kates to wash dishes and clean up the kitchen -- since she gently chided me earlier in the day for wasting water when I wash dishes. It’s about 8 o’clock.]

“I guess I’d better go out and shovel.”

I peak out the front door.

“Maybe not. It’s still snowing.”

I groan.

“I gotta get the mail.”

I open the door. The snow is a couple inches higher than the base of the storm door.

“This’ll be interesting.”

I suddenly decide to abort the task.

“I don’t wanna go out there.”

I begin pacing in the kitchen. And then return to the front door, trying to muster up the courage to go out.

I groan louder. And then suddenly notice the beauty of our wreath covered with powdery snow.

Especially after the ESPN2 broadcast led with footage from both teams’ pre-game locker room talks. Coach Tjeerdsma told his team during his pep talk that it was their day and only they could control it, nobody else. And if they did everything right, he said, “then you get one of these.” And he pointed to the big championship ring on his finger, from either ‘98 or ‘99 -- I don’t know which one it was, but I do know those were two of the most fun and memorable days of my life, and the ‘Cats did a whole lot of things right on those days …

“Yeah Mel!” I shouted after the talk, clapping my hands loudly and pacing around the room like I was in the Florence, Ala., locker room with ‘em.

I also couldn’t help but notice the Bearcats were stationed on the same sideline they were on when they won the ‘98 and ‘99 games. (I believe they were on the opposite sideline when they lost the title games the last two years.) That has to be a good sign, I thought.

Despite an early field goal by Valdosta, Northwest took a lead and held it into the fourth quarter. In the fourth, Valdosta scored to take a 17-14 lead, but Northwest came right back with a touchdown to go back up 20-14 … Only to watch Valdosta block the extra point attempt and run it all the way to the opposite end zone for two points, making the score 20-19, though still in Northwest’s favor …

And finally Valdosta put the ball in the end zone for the winning touchdown with 22 seconds left in the game. Final: 25-20.

Big sigh … Man, my heart was pounding watching the last few minutes of that game. And it’s been this way every year!

The officiating was poor, too. The referees couldn’t make up their minds on some rulings. There was a terribly harsh holding call on Northwest. And there was a terrible ball spot that should have been an easy first down for Northwest, but instead -- luckily for Northwest -- it was ruled a first down by a hair.

Sorry. I’m just a little heartbroken right now.

You know why Northwest didn’t win … I wasn’t wearing my Bearcat stuff. I had forgotten to put it on after I got up this morning … When I realized my mistake midway through the third quarter, I almost raced upstairs to change. I didn’t, though … I should have.

You’ve gotta credit Valdosta. They completely shut down Xavier Omon. And they didn’t give Northwest many chances to get its offense going …

Sigh.

There’s always next year. And I still hold tight to my memories of '98 and '99, as if I haven't mentioned those years enough already ...

12.12.2007

... So I just finished watching tonight's edition of Dateline about the McCaughey septuplets. I got sucked into it after seeing a promo for it during tonight's NBC News (which I was watching on DVR after Kates had fallen asleep. Yes, I DVR the news. I'm such a news junkie ...)

The report was fascinating, touching, humbling and adorable all wrapped in wonderful fashion. That and Ann Curry is a dang good interviewer ...

One of Fukudome's biggest boosters is Cubs broadcaster Ron Santo, who now has the envious task of trying to pronounce his name without incurring any fines from the FCC.

"I talked to Pat Hughes about it and told him that's going to be a tough one," Santo said last weekend from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. "He said, 'Fukudome.' I said, 'Easy for you to say.'"

If you regularly listen to a Ron Santo broadcast, you understand why the above passage is amusing. Man, I love Ron Santo.

Oh yeah. And seeya Mark Prior! ... Sure I enjoyed 2003 (and suffered from a major broken heart) as much as the next Cubs fan. But I've known this day would come since the Cubs brought him up to the big leagues in '02. With all the hype heaped on the kid, it was impossible not to be skeptical ... We are talking about the Cubs after all.

12.11.2007

Now it's a well-known fact that I think winter is one of the cruelest things mankind must deal with each year. OK, one of the cruelest things us northerners must deal with ... And this year I'm especially not liking it.

We've had snow dumped on us almost daily, starting on Thanksgiving Eve. We're only 11 days into December and I'm already fed up with shoveling. I'm ready to chuck my shovel at the snow plow every time I see it putting up yet another barricade at the end of our driveway ...

Tonight, I went out to try shaving some of the ice from our driveway and sidewalks. Yeah. I was back inside within about 20 minutes. It was hopeless ... And once again the snowplow had come through, clogging up the end of our driveway with -- no, not powdery snow this time -- millions of pellet-sized ice crystals that are now, yes, frozen solid. We now have a three-foot speed bump at the end of our driveway ...

To make matters more interesting, I got this text from my good friend Tom in Kansas City around 8:30 last night ...

"... Who wants to have a baby tonight besides me? :) It's an ice storm situation here, so after the water broke we made the trek 2 beat the weather. I have a cold ... "

Nice.

Turns out everything went fine, and Kates and I have yet another birth to celebrate. They're popping out so fast lately we can hardly keep up ... Tom and Dionna (who need to update their blog!) had a boy, Kieran, around 7 tonight.

12.10.2007

Kates is celebrating the eve of her last master's class ... by putting the finishing touches on her final project ...

And that means I've got some me time. The amps are cranked and I'm spinning whatever moves me ... All day I was yearning for John Mayer's Continuum, so I popped that in soon after I arrived home tonight. Now Mute Math is playing (so good!!), and I think I'll be going with some Shiny Toy Guns after that ...

It's going to be a long night.

Man. Music is great.

* * *

Around this time in year's past, I've posted our Christmas wishes ...

Not this year, I've decided. With the sluggish economy and tightened budgets everywhere you look, it just seemed, well, selfish to post a list of things we want. Kates and I have resigned to the fact we won't be trading gifts this year ... We're having a baby and that's our gift!

In the midst of tightened budgets and baby talk, it's also me coming to the realization that a whole lot of things are going to be changing in the next several months...

There's been a good run of concert announcements lately that under other circumstances I'd be booking tickets for immediately ... But not this year. No matter how much I beg, Kates keeps shutting me down. She's good at keeping it real. If she can shut me down, she's got all the makings of a good mom ...

And today came the announcment of Glen Phillips. The Toad the Wet Sprocket singer-songwriter. April 12. In Milwaukee ... We could be having a baby that very day. So that one's definitely not happening ...

Big sigh.

* * *

This one was too cool (and cute) to not post ...

Kates' mom is a big fan of the popular Jane and Kidd morning show and recently delivered some canned goods to their Stuff the Bus event. Chloe got to go along for the ride too ...

Said Kates' mom: "Jane ooed and aahed over Chloe, so I held her up to get petted. I told Jane Chloe was a long-time fan, and Jane said, 'Yeah, we're very popular with small dogs!' "

Good stuff. Here's the picture posted of them on the station's Web site ...

Now, you might recall Grand Valley edged the 'Cats for the title in 2005 and in 2006 ... Last night was different, though. The commentators noted it too -- Going in, even with Grand Valley ranked No. 1 and Northwest ranked No. 5, you had to believe Northwest had the edge; they were trying to avenge the championship game losses and they were playing on their home turf, arguably one of the greatest atmospheres in D-II. It was a chamionship game atmosphere, indeed, and an incredible feeling to be watching my alma mater! my team! and the sidelines I'd paced for four years! right there on national television ...

Kates and I were roaring with every positive yard the Bearcats gained ... and beaming with every shot or reference the commentators made on the surrounding campus ( ... Freezing fans -- it was 17 degrees -- in the student section, snowy shots of the Memorial Bell Tower and the kissing bridge, and a few minutes of amusing conversation about the residents watching the game from their cheap seats in the South Complex -- complete with frenetic fans bouncing in their dorm windows. HA-larious.)

The teams battled in the first half, and it looked as though field goals were going to make and break the game. Northwest went into the locker room at halftime down 13-10 ...

Then ... Xavier Omon came to the rescue. The dude was unbelievable ...

He helped put Northwest ahead, 17-13 for good, midway through the third quarter with a short touchdown run ... Then Grand Valley and Northwest traded field goals to make it 20-16 ...

Just a few minutes into the fourth quarter, Omon caught a screen pass and broke a couple tackles for an 11-yard touchdown pass ...

And then!, after Grand Valley punted and put Northwest on their own 2-yard line, Omon took the first play from scrimmage 98 yards to the opposite end of the field for the knockout punch ... Omon had rushed for a total of 292 yards, and 204 of those came in the second half.

Grand Valley surrendered and ran out the clock. Northwest had won 34-16. The students stormed the field. Sweet Home Alabama started blaring from the public address system. The goal posts came down and off they went toward College Avenue ... Just like old times.

The game ended a little after 11 and Kates and I promptly went to bed ... Little did we know, around the same time Stephanie and Joel were heading to the hospital and our little niece was about to make her grand entrance to the world ...

About 8:30 this morning, as Kates and I were sitting down for breakfast, we got the call from Joel that she had been born. Can hardly wait to meet her ...

But last night's episode -- the second half of a two-parter, I might add (All the multi-part Grey's episodes have bombed, in my opinion ...) -- was the most I've enjoyed a Grey's episode in a looooooooong time ...

12.05.2007

Nothing like starting the day before dawn. With shoveling ... And ending it long after dusk. With shoveling.

I hate winter. My back hates it too. And my knees.

I've never wanted a snow blower so badly.

... We got a solid couple inches of snow on Saturday, you may recall. And last night we got blasted with the second part of the storm. 10 inches. ... Kates woke me up at 6 this morning to go out and shovel; by then several inches had fallen and it was still coming. It took me about an hour to complete the job (we have a good sized two-car driveway and sidewalks on two sides of our house), before I went in to warm up and get myself ready for work -- only to see everything I cleared completely re-covered with snow by the time I came back out to leave for work. Grrrr!And it proceeded to snow long and hard all morning ...

So when Kates and I finally arrived home about 7:30 tonight, I knew I had my work cutout for me again.

It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the dang plows, either. This year, it seems, they're plowing even closer to the curb -- which means less snow left on the roadway and more of it blocking the edge of our driveway. Beginning with the weekend storm, it's taken me almost as much time to remove the gargantuan chunks of snow left by the plows as it's taken me to shovel the rest of the driveway ... and when we came home tonight, it was obvious the plows had come through again because there at the end of our driveway was another blockade of snow ...

Holy cow! The Patriots survived -- or the Ravens botched -- four fourth downs during that final New England drive. Geez, the Ravens had Tom Brady stopped! Stuffed! on a fourth-and-one, only to have whistles blown in the Ravens defense's faces because one of their coaches had called a timeout ... Then the Ravens had the Pats stopped again on a run, only to have a Pats lineman called for a false start and Brady got another chance, which they converted. And a fourth fourth down play resulted in a holding call, before the Pats finally found the end zone for the 27-24 win ...

It was an incredible thing to watch ... And I'm not gonna lie -- I want to see the Patriots go 16-0. They're a classy team to watch, and I want to be able to say I remember when ...

I was talking with a friend about the Packers over supper tonight, and he nailed it when he said it was hard for him to remember a more enjoyable Packers season. Sure the great seasons during the mid-to-late '90s were fun, but those were kind of expected. This year has been made even more spectacular by the fact that almost nobody forecastedFarve's and the Packers' success ... It's been a heckuva ride.

Speaking of nailing it, this read, sent to me this week by my friend Raechel, is a classic too ... If only there were more like Brett. Then again, perhaps it's a good thing there's not. We'd probably take Brett for granted too ...

I also blame it on the fact I haven’t exactly been blown away by anything I’ve been watching this fall -- at least not the way I was always blown away by the hilarity of Friends, Fraiser, Raymond or Will & Grace. Or the soaring drama, action and charm of West Wing, or the early episodes of Lost and Heroes… Which is sort of surprising because it’s a rarity I don’t really like at least a handful of the new shows ...

This year has been a rarity … I was turned off by Caveman and Carpoolers in just five minutes. We stayed with Samantha Who for two episodes before cutting that one loose. And Reaper hung around on our DVR for about three or four episodes before we dismissed that one too …

If a show has any premise remotely about crime and cops, or even smells of sleaze, I'm not getting near it. I don’t care how well it’s written or produced -- I get enough of that in my every day work …

There have been some signs of TV life lately, though … mostly in Daisies, a tornado and a favorite from last season that couldn’t have returned at more appropriate time.

Yeah. So how about that tornado on Wisteria Lane last night!? Captivating at times (Lynette's scream at the end), funny at others (Edie vs Gabby; Victor vs Carlos -- I saw Victor getting pinned with that fence post a mile away), and sometimes just dumb -- No one predicts a tornado hours before it's going to hit and then prepares for it. McClusky driving up in her car and yelling to the neighbors (who were standing under a sunny sky) at 9 in the morning that a tornado had hit Mt. Pleasant and they'd better get under cover for the 4 o'clock tornado was the worst. And c'mon, aside from the Scavo clan, why was nobody worried about Julie and the rest of the kiddos!? ... If you ask me, the Halloween episode was the best so far of a season that's almost reached First Season levels. Danielle playing Bree might have been the funniest thing I've ever seen on Housewives… Still, more recent Sundays have been like watching “a very special episode” of Desperate Housewives. Between Lynette’s cancer battle, Mike’s drug user/abusive husband persona and now Andrew moving out ... Seriously.

And that leaves me with the colorful and dazzling Pushing Daisies ... Why the buzz on this show is so subdued baffles me. (Kates was slow to warm to it too, but I finally got her hooked after a couple episodes) Did I mention how colorful it is? I love the straight-on camera angles of the characters during their conversations. I love the narration. I love the idea that Ned and Chuck are so deep into each other but it's impossible for them to touch, and the way your heart sinks for them every time they get close. And I love that each episode is a 40-minute fantasa-magical who-dun-it adventure with four people I'd love to spend my days with ...

12.01.2007

So the storm that was coming yesterday? ... Yeah, it came all right -- in the form of a wet, icy mess. Shoveling the driveway and sidewalks last night was like trying to shovel Lake Michigan ...

Kates and I just finished watching "Elf" on TV ... We saw it in the theater a few years ago, and I hadn't seen it since -- mostly because I haven't had a high regard for it. I think perhaps it was one of those movies where it was so hyped that we went in with huge expectations, and left the theater feeling let down. So last week when my cohorts were putting together a short list of the greatest holiday movies ever made, I bemoaned "Elf" going on the list ... Seeing it again today, I realized how charming of a little holiday film (and cast) it really is. Forgive me.